My, my Lance, you've just run right off here
into another subject entirely - Let's stick with the one at hand and see
what
God has to say about it ... Those
prophets are messing with your head.
1 Cor 2:14 Juxtaposes the two
kinds of wisdom - which are natural/worldly and spiritual or that from above.
1 Cor 1:20 "For since in the wisdom of God the
world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased
through the (incarnation)?
... foolishness of the message preached
to save those who believe"
There is a natural body and there is a
spiritual body (1 Cor 15:44-46)
There is wisdom from above and there is wisdom
that is earthly, sensual and demonic (James 3:15)
There are people who are spiritually minded and
those who are worldly minded and devoid of the Spirit (Jude
19)
Unless and until they repent the world can not
receive the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17)
God makes foolish the wisdom of the world (1
Cor 1:18-20)
So lets stay on track and see what
leads up to 1 Cor 2:14 ...... Paul writes:
1 Cor 2:6 The wisdom we speak is not of this
age nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away....
1 Cor 2:7 We speak God's wisdom in a mystery
.....
1 Cor 2:8 The wisdom which none of the rulers
of this age has understood ...
1 Cor 2:10 For to us God revealed them through
the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of
God....
1 Cor 2:11 Who knows the thought of a man
except the spirit of the man which is in him ...
even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of
God
1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit
of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might
know.....
1 Cor 2:13 Which things we also speak not in
words taught by human wisdom but in those taught by the
Spirit
combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural (or worldly) man
does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness
to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
So how did "merely human" get into the
conversation and where does the drug of sophistry come from? Paul
is
discussing two kinds of wisdom here
- this is not about who the people think they are or
mature/immature.
'Someone who is merely human doesn't accept the things of God's
Spirit. They are foolishness to such people, you see, and they can't
understand them because they need to be discerned spiitually.' But
spiritual people discern everything , while nobody else can discern
the truth about them! For. 'Who has known the mind of the Lord, so as
to instruct him?' But we have the mind of the Messiah'
Paul is now bringing his discussion of
wisdom and folly, and spiritual maturity and immaturity, right down to
where the Corinthians themselves are. They
have been using the 'drug' of sophistry. supposing it makes
them more 'spiritual'; and Paul declares that it has made them all the
more human.
The more they take the drug, the more
immature they show themselves to be; and the proof of it all is --
their in-fighting about different Christian teachers!
That is the main point Paul is making
here, and it bears reflection in today's church as we so easily lapse
from serious issues to personality clashes, and from personalities to
mere gossip, while all the time pretending we are still dealing with
important matters.
Paul draws a distinction between
'spiritual' people (vs 13) and merely 'human people', those living on
the ordinary level.The former are ones in whom God's Spirit has come
to dwell, opening them up to new depths and dimensions of truth and
experience. The latter may think themselves 'sophisticated' but they
are 'merely human'. ('soul-ish') Such a person (the latter) simply
can't understand what's going on when talk turns to the deeper things
of the spirit. They become LIKE A TONE-DEAF PERSON AT AN OPERA: IT'S
ALL NONSENSE TO THEM. Imagine being the only muscial person listening
to a wonderful string quartet in a large room full of tone-deaf
people. That is rather like Paul's picture of being a 'spiritual'
person in a world of 'merely human' people.
Those who have the spirit have the
MESSIAH'S MIND
THE CORINITHIANS AREN'T READY FOR IT.
Paul is drawing out the difference (2:6) between those who were ready
for serious teaching and those who were still at the infancy stage.
Paul declares (3:2) You are still babies. You are driven by
all-too-human impulses.
LET THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR,
HEAR!
What is this passage NOT about? What IS
it concerning? One ought not employ God's Word without spiritual
discernment. Might it be the case that those who buttress their
comments with many biblical citations occasionally display immaturity?
Might it also be the case that one's maturity/discernment can itself
be DISCERNED even in the absence of such citations?
FWIW, I've found this to be the case
quite in reading "G" But, let not this aside detract from the
above.
judyt
He that says "I know Him" and doesn't keep His
Commandments
is a liar (1 John 2:4)
